China, Iran impervious to US unease about growing ties: China daily

The Chinese state-run daily Global Times has dismissed Western countries’ unease about growing relations between Beijing and Tehran, saying both capitals should remain impervious to the West’s “arrogant” attitude in this regard.

In an editorial published on Tuesday, the newspaper emphasized that the huge potential for win-win cooperation between China and Iran cannot be blocked by "the political forces" of the US and the West.

“With a narrow-minded mindset, some US and Western public opinions appeared rather odd in viewing the relationship between China and Iran, hyping that both China and Iran are ‘opposed’ to the US and claiming that cooperation between the two sides will ‘weaken US efforts to isolate Iran.’ Such zero-sum thinking is arrogant, unreasonable and overbearing,” the article read.

“China and Iran do not need to act according to their (Western) attitude, and it is even less likely that the two sides will reduce exchanges because some people are unhappy.”

It also attached importance to Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi’s China visit on February 14-16, during which the two countries are expected to sign a number of cooperative documents and expand the 25-Year Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement.

The article further described Raeisi’s trip as “very natural,” noting that the China-Iran relations have a strong endogenous driving force.

“Some US and Western media outlets viewed President Raeisi’s China visit as China and Iran ‘huddling together for warmth.’ Such view is not surprising to us, since it’s a result of their binary opposition thinking, and also because Washington has distorted the international landscape. Through a distorted mirror, all things that the US and the West see are twisted. However, it must be said this underestimates China-Iran relations. As an old saying goes: How can a sparrow know the will of a swan?”

China is Iran’s first export destination and the second source of imports. Both countries are subject to different levels of illegal sanctions imposed by the US.

During the trip, the two countries seek to operationalize the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement, which was signed in March 2021, in an attempt to strengthen their long-standing economic and political alliance.

Iran is an important country in China’s high-quality development of the Belt and Road Initiative while China is the target partner of Iran’s “looking east” policy, the article underlined.

It drew attention to “anti-hegemony and anti-bullying feature” of China-Iran cooperation which has been deepening despite interference and sabotage by the US side.

“Both China and Iran uphold independent foreign policies, firmly defend the principle of non-interference in internal affairs on international occasions, and safeguard the common interests of developing countries. This is conducive to promoting the multi-polarization and diversified development of the world, and conforms to the general trend of the times,” it read.

“The existing US-led international system has designs to bully and exploit developing countries and emerging countries. Now Washington still thinks that it is not convenient enough, that the interests of developing countries have increased in weight, and wants to reconstruct a new international system with a stronger tendency, which is undoubtedly a major challenge for the non-Western world and needs to be resisted by forming a joint effort.”

ME